South African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius - who faces murder charges over the shooting of his girlfriend - has spent his first night out of custody after being granted bail.

At a pre-trial hearing on Friday, a Pretoria magistrate ruled the state had not made a case that he would flee, or that he had a violent character.

Mr Pistorius, 26, denies murder, saying he shot Reeva Steenkamp, 29, thinking she was an intruder at his home.

The next hearing is set for 4 June.

Mr Pistorius spent eight nights in a police cell in Pretoria, following his arrest on 14 February. After Friday's ruling granting him bail, he left the court in a silver car pursued by photographers.

The athlete is staying at his uncle's house in Pretoria.

Image caption
Reeva Steenkamp's family say they want the truth

Reports say he may start training again and hold talks with his coach.

Family 'relieved'

Magistrate Desmond Nair set bail at 1m rand (£74,000; $113,000).

Mr Pistorius was also ordered to hand over his passport, avoid his home in Pretoria and report to a police station every Monday and Friday.

Mr Nair took almost two hours to deliver his judgement.

He criticised the testimony of Detective Hilton Botha for not following up important leads and changing his evidence.

The magistrate also said Mr Pistorius had "reached out to meet the state's case" and had given a full version of events at an early stage.

Analysis

By Andrew HardingAfrica correspondent

Even by his own account of events, Oscar Pistorius displayed the most extreme recklessness in firing blindly into a closed door, without even the most basic appreciation of who or what might lie behind it.

Perhaps he's being punished enough by losing the woman he told friends he thought might become his wife.

Having sat just over a metre away from him for the last four days in court, I can tell you he is a broken man.

But still it is hard to imagine he will walk away from a trial without some form of sanction, and with his life and career changed forever by four shots fired into a toilet door.